{"id":13780,"date":"2026-11-03T23:59:44","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T03:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/?p=13780"},"modified":"2026-11-04T00:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T04:00:16","slug":"france-arrests-nearly-5000-people-in-three-weeks-of-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/france-arrests-nearly-5000-people-in-three-weeks-of-protests-03112026\/","title":{"rendered":"France Arrests Nearly 5,000 People in Three Weeks of Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

French Justice Minister G\u00e9rald Darmanin said 70 percent of those detained are adults, and 329 already face legal proceedings carrying prison sentences.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe figure shows that this is a movement of adolescent people, and not precisely a continuity of the protest of high school students,<\/em>\u201d Darmanin stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RELATED: Police Violence Escalates During Mass Protests in France<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protests trace back to mid-September, when pupils in the Parisian district of Saint Denis began blocking high schools. The tactic quickly spread across much of the country\u2019s 3,000 secondary institutions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students\u2019 demands drew support from public sector and teacher unions. Together they call for better conditions in schools, an end to overcrowded classrooms and changes to a university selection system<\/strong> that critics describe as discriminatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Union leaders and student organizations met with the interior, national education and higher education ministers in a series of negotiations. The proposals presented by the government were ultimately judged insufficient.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Monday, France woke to 41 secondary schools still blocked by pupils demanding structural solutions to the country\u2019s educational and economic crisis.<\/strong> The action directly challenged President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s call for a return to normal classes after the autumn break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students took to the streets again on Tuesday and the protests now extend beyond campuses<\/strong>. What began as a dispute over classrooms has merged with broader anger over purchasing power, a shift that has widened the movement\u2019s base and hardened its demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General Strike Looms<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The next major test comes Thursday, when students plan to join a general strike called by the General Confederation of Labor<\/strong> (CGT). The union seeks wage increases and measures to curb the rising cost of living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fishing cooperatives and farmers could also join the mobilizations, despite a government plan to lower fuel costs by releasing two million barrels from the national fuel reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wave of arrests signals a hardening response from authorities. Nearly 5,000 detentions over three weekends marks one of the most intense periods of social unrest France has seen in recent years.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darmanin\u2019s framing of the movement as adolescent-driven carries political weight. The characterization allows the government to present the unrest as less a broad social revolt than a surge of youth discontent, a distinction that shapes how the executive negotiates and how it deploys police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the protesters, however, the arithmetic tells a different story. The Ministry\u2019s own figures show a majority of those arrested are adults, a detail that undercuts the narrative of a purely student-driven movement and points to wider public frustration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coming general strike will test whether that frustration can be channeled into a sustained national movement. It will also measure the government\u2019s ability to contain protests without escalating a confrontation that has already produced thousands of arrests in a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Laura V. Mor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: Agencies<\/p>\n\n\n\n

teleSUR: JP<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 70 percent of those detained are adults, and 329 already face legal proceedings carrying prison sentences. “The figure shows that this is a movement… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[8],"class_list":["post-13780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"authors":[{"term_id":8,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"yolaunicaquehay","display_name":"RRebeldeAdminWP","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e6145d63ff95c9a0f0e53b7149804b1faf86748d6cc15f466103269a288ea377?s=96&d=mm&r=g","avatar_alt":"","avatar_decorative":"","author_category":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english","last_name":"Radio Rebelde","first_name":"WebMaster","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13782,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13780\/revisions\/13782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13780"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=13780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}